{"id":375544,"date":"2025-12-29T08:15:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T08:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/375544\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T08:15:22","slug":"mumbais-vertical-boom-runs-ahead-of-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/375544\/","title":{"rendered":"Mumbai\u2019s vertical boom runs ahead of infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mumbai\u2019s skyline is racing upward, but critics say it is doing so without the checks that give cities coherence, functionality, or even basic liveability.<\/p>\n

Across large swathes of the city, high-rise towers are coming up with little reference to neighbourhood character, infrastructure capacity, or visual continuity. Unlike global cities that regulate building height and massing at the precinct level, Mumbai allows vertical growth almost everywhere, barring areas restricted by aviation rules. The result is an urban landscape where a modest bungalow can stand shoulder to shoulder with a luxury tower, with no planning logic to bridge the gap, reported TOI.<\/p>\n

A stark example is visible in Santacruz, where a cottage built in 1931 is now dwarfed by a newly constructed high-rise. It is a scene urban planners say reflects a broader abandonment of town planning principles that once governed light, air, and proportion.
\u201cToday, planning has been reduced to an arbitrary and ad hoc level with no correlation to infrastructure,\u2019\u2019 says Atul<\/a> Kumar, founder trustee of the Art Deco Mumbai Trust. \u201cAnd there is no attempt to make it aesthetically viable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urban planners argue that the glittering, Dubai-style skyline masks a deeper problem: a policy environment that allows profit to trump planning. Architect and urban planner Rahul Mehrotra has described this trend as being driven by \u201cimpatient capital\u201d, where speed and returns matter more than long-term urban health.<\/p>\n

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Concerns are particularly sharp over repeated increases in floor space index (FSI), which critics say have been allowed to rise sharply without being anchored to road capacity, public transport, or open spaces. \u201cThere is no control on the height or shape of buildings coming up on threshold spaces like waterfronts, open spaces, prominent vistas etc. Ad hoc decisions are taken mostly to benefit builders,\u201d says architect and urban planner Chandrashekhar Prabhu.
The consequences are already visible in the form of traffic congestion and shrinking public spaces. Planners point out that Mumbai itself offers historical examples of a more balanced approach. In 1912, the Bombay City Improvement Trust framed strict norms on building heights and spacing, which were implemented in 1919. These were based on the idea that residents on the ground floor and the top floor had equal rights to light and air.\u201cThis was determined by the 63.5-degree rule; the minimum open space between two buildings and the maximum height,\u201d says Kumar.<\/p>\n

It was only with the city\u2019s first development plan in 1967 that the concept of FSI was introduced, replacing earlier by-laws that controlled development through limits on floors and building footprints.<\/p>\n

Urban designer Harshad Bhatia recalls a time when neighbourhoods like Cumballa Hill and Malabar Hill were defined by treetops rather than concrete. \u201cBuildings like Usha Kiran, Woodlands and Kanchanjunga rose higher than the treetops and were called \u2018skyscrapers\u2019 then. Nonetheless, they were also spaced apart by a prescribed distance from their immediate neighbours. Today, it can be said that building development in Mumbai is rising up, both literally and liberally. What were once considered iconic skyscrapers, seem lost amid newer taller neighbours,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

From a distance, the new skyline can appear impressive, even suggesting prosperity, particularly when viewed from vantage points like the coastal road. But Bhatia cautions that the illusion fades at street level. \u201cBut come up close and what you saw is not what you get.\u201d<\/p>\n

He warns that the long-term cost of unchecked vertical growth could be severe. \u201cTherefore, this present trend of indiscriminate high-rise development, though policy-driven, is foolhardy. Continuing this mindless building spree will be a self-induced disaster in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comparisons with global cities only sharpen the contrast. New York-based architect Arzan Sam Wadia points out that Manhattan\u2019s iconic skyline is the outcome of carefully calibrated zoning laws. \u201cFor instance, when it comes to very tall towers going up next to low-rise buildings or neighborhoods, the city relies on \u2018contextual zoning\u2019.\u201d He adds, \u201cThis helps manage height and bulk to make sure new developments fit in better with their surroundings.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York also enforces measures such as tower setbacks, which require taller buildings to step back from the street, preserving light and preventing streets from being overwhelmed. As Wadia puts it, \u201cIt\u2019s all about balance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mumbai, planners say, appears to be moving in the opposite direction, challenging the idea of balance even as its skyline climbs ever higher.
With inputs from TOI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mumbai\u2019s skyline is racing upward, but critics say it is doing so without the checks that give cities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[183713,28,183711,101,183706,183704,183707,183709,183703,183708,183705,183712,183710],"class_list":{"0":"post-375544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-atul","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-city-planning-norms","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-floor-space-index-fsi","13":"tag-high-rise-development-mumbai","14":"tag-mumbai-infrastructure-strain","15":"tag-mumbai-real-estate-boom","16":"tag-mumbai-skyline","17":"tag-unplanned-urban-growth","18":"tag-urban-planning-mumbai","19":"tag-vertical-development-mumbai","20":"tag-zoning-regulations-india"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}